Launch HN: Prometheus (YC W19) – Remove CO2 from Air and Turn It into Gasoline

Post by solarkraft » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

Damorian wrote: post #34

docker_up wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going to be. Electric cars can't compete against gasoline cars until the price hits about $6/gallon. And considering that crude prices are relatively low, but gas in CA is almost $4/gallon in the Bay Area, it doesn't take much time for normal rates to hit $6/gallon in the next 10 years or so. At that price, it becomes more economic and that's the time frame…

What? They compete today with significantly lower fuel cost. You see 100+ mpge on every electric car I know of today, you're looking at half-1/3 the per mile cost in an electric car. That more than makes up for the higher upfront cost over the lifetime of the vehicle, with cars you can go buy right now, today.

Post by tofof » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

rmcginnis wrote: post #35

twright wrote: post #15

This is really cool, I have a two questions the last one maybe a bit sillier than the first: - I'm not a chemist, maybe you said this implicitly, but roughly at what rate would this capture a kilogram of carbon? - Why did you choose the name 'Prometheus' the titan who created man, gave us fire, and as punishment for the latter part, had his liver eaten out by a vulture every day for eternity?

First question - each ton of CO2 captured is equivalent to approx. 113 gallons of renewable gasoline. If we replace all fossil gasoline in the US, for example, that's approx. 140 billion gallons, equivalent to approx. 1.2 Gigatons of CO2. You can more than double that for the world. If we include all liquid fuels (including heating), it's larger still. It's a hugely significant CO2 emissions reduction. Second questio…

Post by MuffinFlavored » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

rmcginnis wrote: post #11

ignorantguy wrote: post #3

Congratulations. I wish you the best.

Thanks!

Post by baddox » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:35 PM UTC

mrguyorama wrote: post #28

Would you be willing to share vague details of your roadmap? Specifically; How many barrels of ready to burn gasoline are you outputting per day in 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? The fact that the general fuel is going to be sold and re-burned means this is at best carbon neutral, so from a cynical environmentalist point of view, what's the point? This can't help anyone unless you pump the synth-gas into the ground and s…

Post by Damorian » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:37 PM UTC

rmcginnis wrote: post #49

Damorian wrote: post #19

How could the math possibly work out on this? If a gallon of gas holds 33.70 kWh of energy, and you can get cheap electricity for $0.1/kWh, you're looking at $3.37/gallon if you have a magical process that converts with 100% efficiency. Even if you hit your efficiency goal, which would be impressive, who is paying $7/gallon for gas? Just buy an electric car. This can only possibly be useful when all of the oil is gon…

We expect a gallon of gasoline to require approx. 60 kWh of electrical energy. If the price of that electricity is below 5 cents, the economics work. If the price is lower, the efficiency of the conversion could also be lower if that optimized other costs (like capital). Electricity is routinely below 5 cents now at utility scale (wholesale), which is where we will want to be.